Astronauts meet in Tiangong space station core module

The Shenzhou XVI mission crew, which includes the first Chinese civilian astronaut, reached orbit on Tuesday and started work in the Tiangong space station.

Aboard the Shenzhou XVI spacecraft, mission commander Major General Jing Haipeng, spaceflight engineer Colonel Zhu Yangzhu and Professor Gui Haichao, the mission's science payload specialist and the first Chinese civilian in space, were launched by a 20-story-tall Long March 2F carrier rocket, which blasted off at 9:31 am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.

After a short flight, the 8-metric-ton spaceship was placed into a low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above the planet and then activated the rapid rendezvous-docking mode to approach the Tiangong station.